A question about “going green” with your business prompted this column, it’s to offer up a few other ways to go “green”!!

1. Sell products made of recycled/post consumer content.

2. Use compact fluorescent lighting (CFL light bulbs) throughout your business, instead of incandescent light bulbs, reducing your electric bill. Residential lighting constitutes 20 percent of your electric bill.

For the entire article go to Green Business Column- Save Money on Your Light Bill- posted 03/08/07.

3. Use non-aerosol cleaning products throughout your business, aerosols emit CFCs that kill the ozone layer. For more information on CFC’s negative effects on the ozone, go to: http://www.epa.gov/docs/ozone.

4. Install solar powered attic vent fans in your attic to reduce the temperatures in summertime and keep your attic dry in the wintertime. By keeping the temperatures lower you will use less air conditioning, reducing your electric bill.

For the entire article go to Green Business- Summer Solar Tips- posted 07/12/07.

5. Get involved politically by writing letters to your congressperson on environmental issues. To keep abreast of new legislation, you can sign up to stay informed through free newsletters from various organizations.

For the entire article go to Green Business- Legal Briefs- posted 09/27/07.

6. Buy products that are in minimal packaging, avoid excess packaging and make sure that the package is recyclable.

For the entire article go to Green Business- How To Read Labels- posted 10/04/07.

7. Conserve water by fixing any leaky faucets in the building, leaking faucets can cause precious water to be wasted and drive up your water bill.

For the entire article go to Green Business- Water Conservation- posted 08/01/07.

8. Buy recycled office products, or purchase supplies from an environmentally friendly company like Real Goods, located at: http://www.gaiam.com.

9. When replacing the roof, consider installing a roofing material that doubles as a generator of electrical power. You can get a three-for-one value for your money, not only generating power and protecting your home with that roof, but the resale value of your home will increase as well.

For the entire article go to Green Business- Solar Industry Becomes Flexible- posted 09/06/07.

10. Plant trees on your property, they help clean the greenhouse gases out of the air.

11. When purchasing your next vehicle, perhaps you’ll consider purchasing a hybrid vehicle; one that uses a gas engine and an electrical motor, thereby reducing your gas consumption considerably.

For the entire article go to Green Business- A Hybrid Car Saves You Money- posted
06/14/07.

12. Heat water with passive solar panels on the roof, and you can save money on your heating bill using the clean, renewable energy of the sun. For more information, go to:
http://www.renewableenergyaccess.com, and read the article on “Energy Efficient Homes”.

13. Recycling is key, recycle all household glass, plastic, metal and paper. For the entire article go to Green Business- Recycling- posted 05/24/07.

Remember to properly dispose of toxic trash like; batteries, old paint cans, paint thinner cans and old computer components, to name a few.

For the entire article go to Green Business- Toxic Trash- posted 07/19/07.

There are many ways to participate in a Green Business; the main thing to remember is to…START TODAY!!!

PS. To find the Green Business Columns listed, just use the “Search Archives” function on the WBO main page, type in Green Business in the search box and find the post you’re interested in!
http://www.womenbizowners.org

Energetically Yours,
Diane Tegarden
Come join the Storytellers, Poets and Bards Online Forum!
http://www.firewalkerpublications.com

Consumers Can Choose Clean Products- 5 Tips on Reading Labels
By Diane Tegarden - Environmental Journalist

At first, reading the labels on your food and other grocery items can be a bit daunting. But after you get the hang of it, it becomes an interesting and vastly educational experience.

Green consumers (those who are concerned with taking care of our environment) read labels for different kinds of information. Some consumers are looking for organic food, others want food that excludes MSG or GMOs, still others want to make sure that their products have not involved animal cruelty in the testing phase, or they want to make sure to buy fair traded goods.

Organic Farming

The contents, of course, are important but you can also read labels for the quality of the food (whether organic or loaded with chemicals and pesticides), or you can find out if your food has been naturally grown or if it is a genetically modified organism (GMO).

Some of the benefits of organic farming include: soil maintenance (which means that the farmers add organic matter to the earth rather than replenishing the soil with chemicals or synthetic additives); crop rotation (the farmers rotate crops in order to allow the earth to refurbish itself after laying fallow), they also plant a variety of cover crops in fallow soil, utilizing it for other uses (like growing crops for biofuel production.)

Go to http://www.calorganicfarms.com for nutritional information and recipes using organic food.

What is a GMO and should I worry about it?

The debate over genetically modified foods (known as GMOs) is truly a catch-22, in that its proponents claim that the only way to prove GMO’s value is to grow it, and its detractors claim that if you grow GMOs, the potential harm may be irreversible. They claim the risks aren’t worth the good GMOs may bring.

One of the risks posed to the environment is referred to as incidental cross breeding. This occurs when the GMO crops seeds spread inadvertently, creating hybrids when they cross-breed with the naturally occurring plant crops surrounding the GMO crops. This may result in unintended results to the new hybrid plants.

Animal Cruelty

Animal cruelty is the practice of operating on live animals (vivisection) for the use in testing products for human use. Many scientists support more useful diagnostic tools, such as: in-vitro research, breakthroughs in physics and chemistry, computer modeling, epidemiology (the study of disease among a human population), genetic research, clinical studies, autopsies and post-marketing drug surveillance.

Diverting the funds from these unnecessarily cruel animal experimentation would allow the funding of these other more useful, humane diagnostic tools.

For more information on Humane Research, go to http://www.vivisectioninfo.org/humane_research.html

Fair Trade Goods

Fair Trade goods allow farmers to gain a fair price for their goods, increasing their economic prosperity locally, and helping to sustain the environment.

Some of the ways that the farmers are helped directly; farmers are paid additional funds for certified organic products, workers now have safer working conditions, child labor is strictly prohibited, and that the importers now deal directly with the farmers helping them to develop their business acumen and experience.

Together fair trade farmers democratically decide how to reinvest the profits from their sales into the local community, funding scholarship programs, training the local farmers in quality improvement and natural sustainability farming methods, as well as attaining the high standards required to receive the organic certification for their products.

According to TransFair USA, a company that has been certifying Trade Fair coffee since 1999, $60 million of additional income has been provided for farmers through fair traded goods. The benefits to the farmers, their families, and the earth is a testimony to the benefits of Fair Trade.

The benefits to the environment include the banning of toxic agrochemicals, and GMOs, helping to sustain the natural ecosystem of the local area. Shade grown coffee and tea provide a place for migratory birds to live, allowing both business and the local wildlife to thrive. Additionally, the trees provide a natural air filter, cleaning the air of environmental pollution.

For more information on supporting fair trade goods, go to http://www.transfairusa.org.

Excess Packaging- That’s a Wrap

Another thing you can take into consideration when you buy products is whether they have excessive packaging, and whether the package has been made from recycled/post consumer materials. Check to make sure the container can be recycled.

If you price shop, there usually isn’t a large difference in price between the new versus the post consumer products and the quality is about the same. As you shop every week, your choices will begin to accumulate to make a mountain of difference. You can, with practice and habit, help your world every single day.

Energetically Yours, Diane Tegarden
Come join the Storytellers, Poets and Bards Online Forum!
http://www.firewalkerpublications.com